HARTFORD, Ohio (Aug. 21) — Kyle Larson proved Saturday night that not even “the reaper” could kill his winning momentum.
Turning back a late threat from Ryan Gustin — the Marshalltown, Iowa, driver known as the Reaper — Larson continued his successful invasion of the Dirt Late Model division with a flag-to-flag victory in the 40-lap World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series feature at Sharon Speedway.
The 29-year-old NASCAR and open-wheel star from Elk Grove, Calif. — who now has five career WoO starts and only a handful of Dirt Late Model races under his belt in general — looked like a veteran in the full-bodied class as he piloted the iconic K&L Rumley Enterprises Longhorn Race Car to the $10,000 top prize by 0.613 seconds over Gustin.
WoO points leader Brandon Sheppard of New Berlin, Ill., finished after starting outside of Larson on the front row. Tyler Bruening of Decorah, Iowa, continued his string of steady runs in his rookie WoO campaign with a fourth-place finish and Colton Flinner of Allison Park, Pa., started and finished fifth to register a career-best WoO performance.
Larson’s triumph was his second in three WoO starts this season, backing up his $50,000 score in July 31’s Prairie Dirt Classic at Fairbury (Ill.) Speedway. It also added to the plethora of trophies he’s already collected amongst a multitude of different racing disciplines in 2021, including the Sprint Car Knoxville Nationals just one week ago.
While the record book will show Larson never relinquished the lead, Gustin took a few swings at the NASCAR Cup Series regular after reaching second place on lap 28 from the 14th starting spot. Gustin used the cushion to make a late-race charge, even pulling even with Larson’s Longhorn Chassis in the closing laps.
But the savvy Larson changed his line to keep Gustin at bay until the checkered flag.
“I heard (Gustin) going into (turn one) and I saw him coming out of (turn two),” said Larson, who rebounded after being knocked from second place in Friday’s WoO feature at Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, Pa., when a chunk of mud punched a hole in his car’s right-front nose with four laps remaining. “We kind of drag-raced down the backstretch, and he tried to run in and pinch me and kind of block my slider, but I was able to have enough room to get in front of him and kind of get up on the wheel from there.
“The top of (turns one and two) was definitely better when I got up there, and I just had to not make too many mistakes once I got up there.”
The checkered flag came on the type of surface Larson said best suited his driving style, one he’s still fine-tuning for the Late Model division.
“I feel like when a track is like that is when I’m best,” Larson said. “When I don’t have to run the top, I don’t have to try and run the bottom, I can kind of use momentum and use the middle to be good.
“That’s kind of how (All-Tech Speedway in Ellisville, Fla.) was (in January when Larson recorded a blowout Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series victory), and Fairbury a little bit, so yeah, I think my car is good in those conditions and I don’t have to be so precise.”
Gustin fell short of his elusive first-ever WoO victory, but he certainly went down swinging as he matched his career-best WoO finish. A caution flag on lap 27 proved critical in allowing him to challenge Larson for the win.
“(Sheppard) gave me the outside on that restart and I knew I had to make the best of it, otherwise he was going to find it and go up there,” Gustin said.
Even though he came up short, Gustin knew he left everything on the racetrack.
“We gave it all we had, but we got beat by the best driver in the world as far as I’m concerned,” Gustin said. “Nothing to hang your head on there, but I wish he wouldn’t have been here, so we could’ve gotten our first (win).”
Sheppard’s third-place finish was his 19th podium run of the WoO season.
“We were decent. We were just a little bit free in that feature,” said Sheppard, who won Sharon’s WoO A-main in 2019. “The team’s working their butts off. We’re right there on the cusp of being really good like we’ve been for a long time. We just have to get all of our ducks in a row.”
Two caution flags slowed the race. The first came on lap 16 when third-starter Max Blair slowed with nosepiece damage while running fourth and retired from fourth action. Chris Madden stopped on the track on lap 27 and didn’t continue, leaving him with a 16th-place finish that dropped him 146 points behind Sheppard in the WoO standings.
Notes: Larson became the ninth different winner in as many WoO visits to Sharon. ... WoO regular Boom Briggs’s nephew, Logan Jaquay, made his WoO debut driving Briggs’s second. He logged a 23rd-place finish after getting into the feature on a qualifying provisional. … Gustin and Howard Fraley had their qualifying times disallowed because they failed to report to the scales. … The feature lasted 19 minutes with 12 competitors completing all 40 laps. … The WoO tour ends its four-race swing through the Northeast on Sunday night at Eriez Speedway in Hammett, Pa.
